mbtharp1

You can get a diawa fuego ct for $69 on eBay, and get a berkley lightning rod for cheap. I think the fuego is a much better reel than the blackmax and silvermax.

Took the family fishing at my Wife’s Grandpa’s pond! Ellie is 6 and caught tons of fish by herself for the first time. I’ve got her using an under spin with a left hand retrieve so I can convert her to “lefty” like me. My son Logan was my wife’s fishing assistant until he got hungry and grumpy lol.

Went to Clinton last week, figured I'd share! Fished main lake banks/riprap all morning with no luck. Switched it up and pitched a craw around in the backs of coves when the sun came out and got some good bites!

Here’s the video from Sangchris ?

Caught a bunch of fish on Sangchris on Wednesday. 60* water and they were crushing topwater. I love power plants video will be up soon.

7' medium spinning rod, 15lb braided line with 8lb fluoro leader, good for shaky heads, wacky rigs, drop shots, lighter baits. 7' medium moderate action baitcasting rod, 6:1 gear ratio reel, 12-15lb copolymer line, good for shallow/medium crankbaits, topwater walking baits, poppers. 7'2" Medium heavy fast action baitcasting rod, 7:1 gear ratio reel, 17lb fluorocarbon line. Good for fishing jigs, texas rigs, swing heads, chatterbaits, and spinnerbaits. I got by for a long time with 3 set ups like this and it worked really well.

Use whatever you have the most confidence in. My home lake has 1.5ft visibility at its absolute clearest, and is usually really muddy. Green pumpkin chatterbaits and craws still outfish black/blue or black/red 3 to 1. It doesn't always make sense lol. In your situation I would definitely stick with greens and browns.

Haha you know Patrick?? Small world

Anyone that's looking for open water needs to get out on one of our powerplant lakes. Went to Coffeen with a friend and caught some fish last week, it was a good time!

I only throw 1/2oz chatterbaits, so I may have to try that blank out! I had my eye on that one, just wanted to be sure it had enough backbone for a good hookset, and ripping the bait from grass.

Looking to build a glass rod for bladed jigs, and I want to build something similar to evergreen's combat stick 7'3" H glass rod. Have any of you built something similar and have any suggestions for blanks? This will be my first rod build.

Academy H20 Express brand squarebills. They go on sale for 2.99 pretty often, come with vmc hooks, and take a beating. They're also heavy and cast well for a 1.5 sized crank.

I got a $50 BPS card for christmas, and I'm going to buy 3 Evergreen Jackhammer chatterbaits because I could never pay the price for them out of pocket, it would hurt too much lol.

Went out on Sangchris a little over a week ago. Got some decent fish on the jig. Check out the video I made while I was out! Anyone else in IL fishing power plant lakes this time of year?

Yum Christie Craw. Cheap, durable, and they catch fish like crazy.